Ed Sheeran confirms new record Equals and releases moving single about his late mate Michael Gudinski

Ed Sheeran has enlisted Kylie Minogue and Jimmy Barnes for the single, Visiting Hours, his tribute song to Michael Gudinski. WATCH THE VIDEO.

Kathy McCabe

@McCabeRadar

3 min read

August 19, 2021 - 11:15PM

News Corp Australia Network

Courteney Cox ropes in Elton John and Ed Sheeran for all-star singalong

Music

Don't miss out on the headlines from Music. Followed categories will be added to My News.

Pop superstar Ed Sheeran has shared the heart-wrenching musical tribute he wrote in quarantine in Australia for his mate and mentor Michael Gudinski to launch his new record titled = (Equals).

The Bad Habits chartslayer enlisted Kylie Minogue and Jimmy Barnes to add their vocals to the album version of Visiting Hours, the song he broke down while performing at Gudinski’s memorial in March.

It launched an ocean of tears among Gudinski’s family and friends with its deeply personal lyrics about the close relationship the pop star and the promoter shared.

Ed Sheeran dedicates his new record Equals to his mate Michael Gudinski. Picture: Supplied

“I wish that heaven had visiting hours, And I would ask them if I could take you home,” he sings.

Visiting Hours is the second single from the = record, which Sheeran will dedicate to Gudinski, and launched to his millions of fans via Instagram on Thursday. The album will be released on October 29.

The British superstar regarded the man he called a “tornado of joy” as a father figure, forging such a tight-knit bond over the past decade he had a special clause written into his tour contract.

“He was in my tour insurance that basically if anything ever happened to him I could cancel as many gigs as possible and go and be with his family,” he told Hit Network in June.

Sheeran, his wife Cherry Seaborn and their baby girl Lyra travelled immediately to Australia after Gudinski’s sudden death to be with his wife Sue and children Matt and Kate.

The first verse of Visiting Hours references his regret Gudinski never got the chance to meet his baby girl before his death.

“It meant a lot to myself and our family that Ed made the journey out here and created a song in Dad’s honour, written especially for him. When I first heard the song it really was just perfect,” Matt said in April.

Gudinski and Sheeran shared a lot of love and laughs during their decade-long friendship. Picture: Matt Jelonek/WireImage

Sheeran and Matt both got tattoos of the music great’s signature No.1 finger salute at a Melbourne studio after the memorial.

The other permanent reminder of his mate is a life-size bronze statue in his Suffolk castle which Sheeran has said he regularly toasts with a bottle of Gudinski’s preferred drop, the Penfolds 707 cabernet sauvignon.

Sheeran enlisted Kylie Minogue and Jimmy Barnes to sing on the new album version of Visiting Hours. Picture Mushroom Creative House.

heeran, who performed with Minogue at the memorial and hung out with Barnesy after the show, said he wanted them to sing on Visiting Hours because the Mushroom mogul had considered them to be “the most important people in [his] life, musically”.

Sheeran clearly wanted to skip – (Minus) as a title for his new record, which follows + (Plus), x (Multiply) and ÷ (Divide) in the symbol album series and the 2019 release No. 6 Collaborations Project.

His return to music after taking time out to focus on his family has been wildly embraced by fans with Bad Habits clocking more than half a billion streams and video views since it was released on June 25.

Sheeran’s new record also explores fatherhood and resilience. Picture: Supplied

he new record also features songs written over the past four years inspired by fatherhood (Sandman, Leave Your Life), resilience (Can’t Stop The Rain), the reality of his pop career and fame (Tides) and of course, love (The Joker And The Queen, First Times, 2step).

“= (Equals) is a really personal record and one that means a lot to me. My life changed greatly over the past few years – I got married, became a father, experienced loss, and I reflect on these topics over the course of the album,” Sheeran said in a statement.

“I see it as my coming-of-age record, and I can’t wait to share this next chapter with you.”

His production and writing collaborators on the record include FRED (who worked on No. 6 Collaborations) and Johnny McDaid, the partner of Courteney Cox who Sheeran posted hilarious dancing and singing videos with in June.